Hi, my name is Andrea and I will be glad to assist you in any way that I can,

I am sorry to hear about your child and about the utility shutoff notice,

Utility companies cannot shut off the utilities where there is a sick member of the family residing in the property. This is usually applied when there is an elderly member of the family residing in the home, but it is equally applicable to a sick child. If you want to prevent the utility company from shutting off your utilities, you are going to have to act very quickly in this regard. You should immediately call your child's pediatrician or any other health provider who is treating your child for their illness and ask them for a letter, it can be very brief, just as long as they confirm that you child is ill and shutting off the utilities will cause her condition to substantially worsen. You should take that letter with a copy of your shutoff notice in person to the offices of the utility company and give it to someone in authority, do not trust it in the hands of some clerk.

It is difficult to say if changing the due date is illegal because I do not have all the information necessary to make that determination. It would depend on how many months behind you are, when the last payment was made. The fact alone that they miscalculated the date is not illegal where the homeowner is very far behind in their payments because the utilities company does not know of your circumstances and your child's illness. You did not state if you entered an Agreement with the utilities companies to pay the outstanding balance in installments. There are many factors involved and I do not want to mislead you with any inaccurate information and risk having you present an invalid argument to the utilities company that would only make matters worse.

I wish you the very best of luck and if you follow the above steps, the utilities should not shut off the utilities and if they do after you gave them notice and confirmation of a sick child in the home, you would have a cause of action against them for any damages you suffer as a result of their action in shutting off the utilities,

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